Abstract

For roughly two decades, international museums are aware of requests for restitution and repatriation of cultural property, and, in particular, human remains. One of the oldest is the NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) that originates in the USA in 1990. Such requests reflect a positive phenomenon, which must be welcomed: the accession of some populations in national or international forums where they can finally make their voices heard. It therefore reflects progress in the recognition of the rights of cultural minorities. These rights concern both the past and the present, as well as the dead and the living, and requests for repatriation seem even more legitimate in the eyes of public opinion that they come from communities often victims of European colonial expansion and today still sometimes marginalized in their own country.